1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stopper housing case capable of housing a plurality of stoppers for defining a drill blade entering depth. The stopper has a cylindrical shape to be fitted on a drill from the blade edge side of a blade part, where the drill is to bore a dental implant fixture embedding hole having a predetermined depth at a jawbone when performing a dental implant treatment. The stopper further has a spring-like locking part to be locked with a flange part projected from a shank part of the drill. In addition, the stopper housing case is capable of easily attaching and detaching the stopper to and from the drill attached to a dental handpiece.
2. Description of the Conventional Art
In recent years, a dental implant treatment has been broadly used as one of dental prosthesis treatments. In the dental implant treatment, a dental implant fixture made of titanium or a titanium alloy having excellent biocompatibility is embedded in a jawbone of a lost tooth part, and is substituted through direct bone bonding (osseointegration) instead of a natural tooth root. Further, the dental implant fixture used in the dental implant treatment is configured separately from an abutment for fixing a dental prosthesis, or is configured integrally with the abutment.
It is necessary for such a dental implant fixture to be embedded into the jawbone to a predetermined depth. Thus, in order to embed the dental implant fixture, conventionally, a stopper for defining the boring depth is attached to the drill for boring the dental implant fixture embedding hole at the jawbone. For attaching the stopper, a method to attach the stopper at a predetermined position of a blade part of the drill with a screw or the like has been used (e.g., refer to Japanese Translation of PCT Application Laid-Open No. 2003-501135). However, since the attachment position must be adjusted at an every attachment operation, it is troublesome. Further, there is a problem that an accident that the stopper is moved could occur if the stopper is not fixed certainly with the screw.
Accordingly, present inventors found out the following. A flange part is provided to project from a shank part of a drill for boring a dental implant fixture embedding hole having a predetermined depth at a jawbone when performing a dental implant fixture treatment. A spring-like locking part provided at a stopper for defining a drill blade entering depth is locked with the flange part. With this configuration, since the flange part is integrated with the shank part of the drill, a problem that an attachment position is moved does not occur unlike the attachment with a screw. So, it is preferable. A drill blade entering depth can be defined easily by providing the flange part integrally with the shank part of the drill, and preparing a plurality of stoppers for defining the drill blade entering depth. The stopper has a cylindrical shape to be fitted on the drill from the blade edge side of a blade part, and has a spring-like locking part to be locked with the flange part projected from the shank part of the drill. However, when the spring-like locking part of the stopper is locked with the flange part projected from the shank part of the drill, the spring-like locking part must be locked with the flange part so as not to be easily detached from the flange part projected from the shank part of the drill. Thus, strong force is necessary for locking the spring-like locking part of the stopper with the flange part projected from the shank part.